Luke smirked as he watched Lance grin. He had called this pair specifically because he knew about their creations. It would be both much harder and much easier in the future to get solid, modern equipment, so they would be useful.
Additionally, he didn't want to show all of his cards yet. He would prefer saving Emily's assistance for later, and he knew that she was someone who would be smart enough to stay inside as much as possible and survive on her own until he needed her. And if she found out that he had called them first, which he knew she would, she would be very jealous.
As for Janko, they didn't have a specialist in persuasion, other than Luke himself, though he didn't count himself towards any of the positions. After all, if he did, he wouldn't need anyone else. But they also came as a pair, so Luke would have had a hard time convincing Lance to come alone even if he had wanted him to.
Michael was the only unknown player currently on the board, other than the enemy. But Luke had suspicions about them too.
Zoe stepped up to his left shoulder, glaring.
"Why them?" she grumbled. Luke just smiled.
"Because I could, I suppose," he responded.
Zoe groaned, and Luke looked for some viable way to ignore her.
Searching in his pocket, he pulled out the crystal that Eve had retrieved from the large beast earlier, and considered it.
Fortune favors the bold, huh? Well, we'll see. He grasped the crystal that in both hands, then twisted and pulled at the same time.
With a sharp crack! it came apart into two halves, instead of shattering like he had thought it might. Inside was a fine blue powder, some of which drifted to the ground, but most of it stayed inside the halves of the hollow structure.
As soon as the powder touched the ground, Luke felt it ripple.
He immediately flung himself backwards, shoving off the ground with one foot as earthen spikes tore up under him, punching out of the ground into the air as though they were hungry for blood.
Luke landed with a small hop backwards to waste his momentum, then he approached the spikes again. If he hurried, he could-
Too late.
Eve's hammer smashed through all of them, accompanied by a fierce shout from what had been the other side of the formation.
Now that there was only rubble and a small mound between them, she matched onto the slight incline and glowered up at him.
"Yes?" Luke asked, sure she was about to scold him.
"Be careful," she said with a huff, crossing her arms and dropping her hammer onto the ground. She had decided against yelling at him too much. Probably because she was enjoying the zombies.
"I'm fine, aren't I?" he asked, amused. After so much rejection, Eve had latched onto him rather aggressively.
She just huffed again.
Luke smiled, then walked around her, over to Lance. He was standing above a heavily wounded zombie that had its arms and legs cut off, carefully cleaning a dagger that he had produced from under his jacket. The knife was about half the length of his forearm, which was a decent length, but clearly nowhere near that of a sword.
Lance was an odd fellow. He liked his machines janky and his weapons precise. Luke happened to know that he had taken nearly a week refining the dagger he was currently holding before he had consented to use it. He had once taken nearly two hours to clean, oil, and sharpen it after skinning and gutting a rabbit.
Of course, that was also partially because he was extremely gentle with his knives. His mother had told Luke once that she called it the Angel's Touch, and that his father had had it too, though his was more for her. She hoped that one day he would learn to appreciate people, or at least a person, more than short metal poles made to be stuck into them.
Honestly, Luke doubted it. After all, even if he survived here, most people were hardened by the apocalypse, not softened by it.
And then again, his childhood hadn't been exactly the ideal conditions to raise a lover. What he had ended up as was a whole cracked lot better than what Luke would have expected if he had met him then.
And that was all anyone could strive for, in the end.